XIII. THE SEED AND HUSK. 225 



In the nut, the calyx remains green and beautiful, form- 

 ing what we call the husk of a filbert ; and again we find 

 Nature amusing herself by trying to make us think that this 

 strict envelope, almost closing over the single seed, is the 

 same thing to the nut that its green shell is to a walnut ! 



11. With still more capricious masquing, she varies and 

 hides the structure of her ' berries. ' 



The strawberry is a hip turned inside-out, the frutes- 

 cent receptacle changed into a scarlet ball, or cone, of 

 crystalline and delicious coral, in the outside of which 

 the separate seeds, husk and all, are imbedded. In the 

 raspberry and blackberry, the interior mound remains 

 sapless ; and the rubied translucency of dulcet substance 

 is formed round each separate seed, upon its husk ; not 

 a part of the husk, but now an entirely independent and 

 added portion of the plant's bodily form. 



12. What is thus done for each seed, on the outside 

 of the receptacle, in the raspberry, is done for each seed, 

 'mside the calyx, in a pomegranate ; which is a hip in 

 which the seeds have become surrounded with a radiant 

 juice, richer than claret wine ; while the seed itself, 

 within the generous jewel, is succulent also, and spoken 

 of by Tournefort as a " baie succulente." The tube of 

 the calyx, brown-russet like a large hip, externally, is 

 yet otherwise divided, and separated wholly from the 

 cinque-foiled, and cinque-celled rose, both in number of 

 petal and division of treasuries ; the calyx has eight 

 points, and nine cells. 



